Uncanny X-Men #29

By Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend

Uncanny X-Men #29 picks up where the last issue left off, Magneto confronting Cyclops and Matthew. While Scott and Erik chat, this issue heavily features some X-Women, Magik and Eva Bell shine. With the “Last Will and Testament of Charles Xavier” coming to an end soon, these next couple of issues are important to the series moving forward.

This story arc has been an extremely slow burn from Brian Michael Bendis. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s gotten to the point where something needs to happen instead of long conversations. The will of Charles Xavier has also been pushed completely to the background. While team members are out dealing with Matthew, the will is left in limbo and is probably forgotten by many readers. Eva Bell continues to get lots of spotlight this issue and Bendis continues to write her well. She should slowly be climbing the list of new favorite mutants because she’s definitely a cool character. The conversation between Scott and Erik was done fairly well and Bendis allows the characters to have an honest conversation that ends with Magneto having a bit of a revelation. The issue does start to pick up heat, but of course it ends before we get any resolution.

The art this issue is handled by Chris Bachalo with colors provided by Antonio Fabela and Jose Villarrubia. This was actually one of Bachalo’s best issues on the series. There were definitely some off panels, but he also had a few flat-out awesome pages. The page of Magik holding the Eye of Agamotto is gorgeous in every way. The colors add so much to one of Bachalo’s finest panels. The book falters a little in the middle as characters lack facial details and Magik seems to have an oversized nose. Bachalo does his finest pencils in the issue when he has a full-page or a big panel that he can work with like the Magik panel listed above, and he also has a very good page of Eva later in the issue. Overall the art was very good and Chris Bachalo should pat himself on the back for a fine issue.

With the end of the arc fast approaching, we wait patiently for the post-Axis stories to start. Brian Michael Bendis definitely has big plans in store for the Uncanny X-Men, but we have to get through this first. Chris Bachalo has picked up his game this issue and turned in his best work of the arc. The anticipation is starting to mount for readers as we patiently wait for Bendis to take us into the next phase of the series.